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Document Details : Title: Inscriptions, croix et décors de l'enceinte d'Ani Subtitle: Les derniers états - XIIIe-XIVe siècles Author(s): DANGLES, Philippe Journal: Revue des Études Arméniennes Volume: 43 Date: 2025 Pages: 257-300 DOI: 10.2143/REA.43.0.3295026 Abstract : The decorations, crosses and inscriptions of the city wall of Ani are often noticed and commented on by visitors, but have never been studied methodically. Our work attempts to remedy this by focusing on the last 'epidermis' of defensive works that have been modernized several times since the foundation of the wall at the end of the 10th century. We therefore limit ourselves to the last period of the city’s life, taken at the turn of the 13th century by the Zakarid generals first sent by the Queen of Georgia, then passed under the tutelage of the Mongols three decades later. These upheavals did not prevent the deployment of a very ambitious program of renovation of the city’s defences, entirely covered with new facings, raised and completed by the addition of new works. We distinguish two entities in this vast ensemble: on the one hand the signature system of a certain number of towers and few curtain walls, by inscriptions associated with wall xač‘k‘ars and sometimes with sculpted decorative elements, and on the other hand the large anepigraphic marquetry decorations present on a number of curtain walls and on the highest towers. The characterization and the analysis of the distribution of these signs and decorations, crossed with the observation of the stratigraphic relationships between the last works of the enclosure, allows us to better understand the chronology, the motivation and the conditions of production of this vast project. |
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